Market Research

What is Market Research?

Market Research is the process of gathering information about your customer, product, service, pricing, location, advertising and other marketing initiatives. Market Research is an invaluable step in the process of your organization's growth. Market Research can be conducted by surveying your customers, including your stakeholders, suppliers and top tier employees. In order to make sure you are collecting the right data, enhancing your customers' satisfaction and loyalty and structuring your results correctly, BSC will help you to create a unique survey with your own questions. Our quick setup time, real-time progress reports, interactive presentations, secure CAT system and flexible survey structures guarantee that you'll get exactly the information you need in order to make solid plans for the future.

How we do it

BSC will help you through the process of creating a unique Market Research survey to answer all your questions. Make use of our research templates or design your own. BSC's research methodology includes:

​E-Surveys (Email Surveys, hosted on the internet) – E-Surveys are inexpensive, quick and easy. They have great invitation and reminder messages and can be completed on any device that has internet access.

Telephonic Surveys (interviews over the telephone) – Telephonic Surveys are very thorough, professional and forthright. Respondents can be contacted several times and their perceptions are probed with questions especially aimed at them.

Questionnaires (printed documents that can be handed out) – Questionnaires are user-friendly, enjoyable and especially aimed at individuals who do not have access to electronic devices or advanced language skills. We deliver them to your customer’s location and retrieve them once they have been completed.

Face-to-face interviews (our interviewers schedule meetings with respondents) Face-to-face interviews are comprehensive, full of valuable data and they make you, as the product/service provider, look great. Interviewed respondents feel appreciated and are more likely to admit their true feelings.

Focus Groups (face-to-face interviews with a small group of people) Focus groups are great for gathering information from many respondents in a short period of time. Respondents are encourages to brainstorm about their opinions and suggestions.

A combination of the above, e.g. VIP’s (like Directors) are surveyed with face-to-face interviews, your finance department can be surveyed telephonically because they are at their desks quite often, project managers who travel often will receive an emailed survey that they can even complete on their smartphones, and people without computers or phones (like mine workers) will receive questionnaires to fill out.

Benefits of BSC's unique Market Research service

BSC is the preferred research service provider to over 20 local and international organizations and boasts with 12 years of experience in the research industry. When choosing Market Research, it is important to choose a service provider who can guarantee absolute confidentiality, integrity and professionalism when it comes to sensitive information. BSC's computerized data capturing system does exactly that and upon completion of the project, it is handed over to you for future use. Our real-time progress dashboard enables you to check up on the research progress at any time, from any device. The results are graphically illustrated using graphs, heatmaps and arrows with easy summaries, hyperlinks and popups to help you understand everything at first glance.

The Research Process

The following process is outlined in more detail in our Market Research Proposal - readily available on request. Contact Danielle at danielle@bscsurvey.co.za for your free proposal today.

1. Setup

Initial Meetings – Workshops with BSC’s research team to brainstorm about which questions you need answers for, your sample population, available timeframe and other specific requirements.

Survey Design – The creation of a unique questionnaire with quantitative and qualitative questions designed to probe into the market’s perceptions, expectations and levels of commitment to your brand.

CAT System Creation – A personal computerized system that is created for each of our clients in order to keep their data safe, organize the results and present the outcomes of the research in real-time.

Training – Everyone who would like to have access to the CAT system and real-time progress reports are trained to use it during a short informal meeting.

2. Research

Notification and invitation messages are dispatched to the population to inform them that the survey will take place and that you will highly appreciate their feedback.

Community Support Initiative – A community Support program is set up where research may be conducted by using printed questionnaires or interviews. Fieldworkers are appointed from the local community from a group of pre-determined disadvantaged individuals. These individuals are trained by BSC’s partner SETA Accreditation Company, Mash Consultancy, where they receive certification as surveyors and interviewers. After their contract with BSC ends, they may be retained for future projects or future job opportunities may be created to ensure the growth of their careers in the research industry.

Research is conducted by combining multiple types of research methodology, including online surveys, telephonic surveys, face-to-face interviews, focus groups, printed questionnaires etc. The research methodology is determined by the type of respondent being surveyed, for example, VIP’s are surveyed by face-to face interviews and respondents with internet facilities may be considered for email surveys.

Data Capturing and Progressive focus – The research data is captured automatically during telephonic and email surveys or manually after face-to-face interviews, hard copies or focus groups where questionnaires are scanned, processed by OCR software with text recognition capabilities and inserted into the CAT system by professional certified data capturers.

Quality control – A quality control process is set in place in order to ensure the integrity of the data by the use of frequent reports from field workers, data capturers and managers, highlighted audit numbers, regular back checking, digital scanning with OCR software and real-time progress illustrations on BSC’s CAT system dashboard (visible online from all computer, tablet, android or apple devices.)

3. Analysis of the data

The research data is sorted in BSC’s unique CAT system and analysed for accuracy, trends, interesting highlights, key areas for improvement and weaknesses by BSC’s team of research experts. The survey results are then prepared according to your preferences and presented in an initial report for your consideration before the final report is created.

4. Reporting and Presentation

Progress Reports – The research project’s progress can be seen in real-time on the internet, available with a simple click. Daily incident reports are also emailed to you should any serious concerns be highlighted during the survey. Weekly and monthly progress reports (similar to our final report) are also available on request.

Final Report – A final report of all the survey data is presented in printed and digital format. The final report is designed to illustrate the highlights, neutral areas and key areas for improvement identified during the research process. Attractive graphics, summaries and heatmaps ensure that everything is easy to understand and remodel to suit your requirements.

Final Presentation – The final report is is presented during an entertaining workshop with the use of interactive 3-D presentation software. During the workshop, the presentation may be altered to encourage ease of use and then it will be made available online.

Workshops – During a series of workshops after the presentation of the final results, BSC will facilitate brainstorming sessions where champions may be appointed to each “key are of improvement” identified by the research. BSC will also aid the monitoring of certain actions applied to each key area as well as the presentation of progress reports by each champion.

5. Gap Analysis – Future Research

Research that is conducted only once is often referred to as a “Snapshot Survey” or poll. It gives you an overview of a specific subject. In order to see how the information you’ve gathered can move, change, and grow, further research is necessary. In order to see the full potential of the data, a second research project may be set in place after a period of time when certain actions have been set in place. Once the second set of results is available, they will serve as a valuable comparison to the previous data. Many of BSC’s prestigious clients conduct customer and employee surveys on a cyclical basis.

Marketing Opportunities created by Market Research

BSC’s Marketing Services are based on conducting Market Research and also generating Marketing Leads.

FOCUS AREAS:

Existing Customers – by conducting regular Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty Surveys that show interest in the customer’s opinion, by opening a new communication door, by listening to the customer and by implementing solutions based on clear and accurate findings – the existing customer’s expectations will be exceeded. The Client’s customer retention goals can therefore be met by setting realistic objectives over a period of time.

Lost Customers – as we proceed through The Client’s current database and come across a respondent who is no longer a customer of The Client, we still attempt to survey them and obtain responses that are analysed and reported to The Client. Follow-up’s (and corrective actions based on the results) can then be implemented to persuade them to return.

Customers at the “Churn Point”: by segmenting those customers who are getting close to the end of their contract, we will probe specifically into whether they are willing to recommend and repurchase products from The Client. Those who offer negative ratings and responses are reported with the reasons so that corrective steps can be taken to prevent them from leaving.

Potential Customers: by thoroughly addressing the goals, objectives and reasons for the Marketing Research Survey, determining clear key performance areas, and implementing a Customer Satisfaction Culture in the organisation, potential customers can be attracted.

KEY BENEFITS OF OUR MARKETING RESEARCH PACKAGE:

BSC is an independent service provider. We deliver unbiased results as a third party. Our marketing research and customer surveys are conducted in a professional matter by qualified interviewers and we comply with SAMRA’s code of ethics. Results can therefore be trusted to be true and correct, and are based strictly on the results of a study.